Spring Maybe

It is trying to be spring in New York. Well, up to a point.

Yesterday it was sunny, and then mean, little black clouds appeared.

At first I thought it was bits of blossom being blown off trees,

but it was snow.

This is a tree doing its best.

And one doing better. 

But look at the color of the sky at 3pm.

 The people in hats and jackets.

Not a good day for a walk. What an alarming lobby.

Last puppy picture for a bit.

Babies and small animals utterly entrancing to their besotted owners

which is exactly as it should be. 

The rest of the world likely to expire from cuteness fatigue.

ps. Brief book report. 

 Winifred Holtby's The Crowded Street( 1924)

Made me remember a vanished world.....

Aunt Beatrice on her unmarried state: It's when you grow older and the people who needed you are dead. And you haven't a home nor anyone who really wants you  -- and you hate to stay too long in a house in case someone else should want to come -- and of course it's quite right.

A Visit to Tappan

What a sucker I am for garden centers. Bee wrote recently about the same passion.

Books and flowers -- can never have enough of them. At least it isn't crack.

Since we don't have a garden, we choose things for  our son and daughter in law's garden.

Here primulas. We also got snapdragons and cineraria.

Even the names are a delight.

Once old cars get really decrepit, they pass beyond the totally ugly stage

and morph into something approaching art. Well, maybe.

As we returned to the city down the Pallisades in the late afternoon

a curious thing happened. The roads, the woods, 

everything -- was swathed in  a thick, blanketing,

 all engulfing fog the like of which I haven't seen for many years. 

Magical and foggy and not really springlike at all.

Escape from the City

It has been unbearably hot and muggy. A good time to get out of the city.
On Tuesday I went to a party at a friend's house on Long Island.
As well as being a very nice person, she has a swimming pool, three dogs and three granddaughters.
Sadie, a friend's toddler, was there too and was most interested in the dogs.



I haven't the least idea who lives in this very traditional house in Tappan, north of the city.
But it struck me as the ideal American house from the beginning of the last century. A bit like the one our children grew up in on Long Island.



While walking the dog, I admired the shadowy greens with light filtering through the trees.

Out of the City

Sometimes one has to get out of the city to look at historic things.
This is the DeWit House in Tappan New York. Built around 1700.



It was George Washington's winter headquarters one year during the Revolutionary War.



Sometimes one leaves the city to go to family parties.
This one was given by by my son's in laws for Bobby's 30th birthday.
It was a really happy day.



The wonderful Abby and Charlotte (Kristin's nieces) were the stars of the day - as they should be.
You need lots of children at a birthday party.


Then you have to go home to the city on the rail road.........

snow

Because I mostly live in Marrakech where there isn't any snow except up in the Atlas Mountains, I love it here.
Even ordinary little homes look magical to me.



Ice coating the rhodedendron leaves where the water drips from the snow melting on the roof.



Bare tree branches are evocative and lovely.



In the nature preserve brambles and thorns in the sunlight.



More tree branches.......
Can't resist......

It Snows in Tappan

Hm........snow.
Very pretty.



But very cold.



I volunteered to take the dog for a walk.
He pulled on his leash so it was hard to take pictures.

A little bit like a Christmas tree?



The dog got lumps of snow under his legs etc etc. On the whole he enjoyed his outing.